Charlie Bartlett’s personal war resembles that of a number of the adolescents he meets at his new public high school. His resources don’t.

That his wealth isn’t more of a sticking point to liking him has much to do with the film’s hopeful, if misguided, soul — and its amiable cast.

Anton Yelchin’s Charlie has a raw optimism undercut by deep need. A prescription for Ritalin scrawled by a lazy therapist has him darting around in his skivvies, banging out jazz riffs on the family grand piano and literally bouncing off the walls.

It also gives him an idea. He begins holding therapy sessions in the graffitied boys’ bathroom and writing out prescriptions for his “patients.” His former bullier, Murphy (Tyler Hilton), fills them.

Watchably wounded, Robert Downey Jr. plays Principal Gardner, a once-beloved teacher now the reluctant authority figure. Kat Dennings is his smartly aware daughter, Susan. They provide ballast. An odd thing to say, perhaps, since Principal Gardner is an alcoholic. But then, Marilyn Bartlett washes down her antidepressants with white wine.

With the help of Davis and Downey, the movie sticks to a compassionate point: Some self-medicating parents really do love their kids.

It helps to know that Poll, making his directorial debut, found kin for screenwriter Gustin Nash’s shadows-and-light story in Hal Ashby’s cult classic “Harold and Maude,” about a death-obsessed, suicidal young man and his love for an elderly free spirit — not a laugh riot.

On the other hand, it won’t help much to go into the theater thinking you’ll see a gloss on “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

It’s risky business championing an adolescent protagonist who thrives on the illicit.

But the appointments Charlie holds in the men’s room make an argument most can get behind:

Maybe it’s not the drugs after all. The “talking cure” still has power — especially as a listening tool for teens.

Ben Platt, who more than three years ago spoke the words and sang the music of “Dear Evan Hansen” for the first time, going on to win the Tony Award in June for best actor in a musical, will leave the celebrated musical in the fall, the show’s producers announced Monday.